


Notable

by AnonEhouse



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Post Avengers (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-17
Updated: 2013-01-17
Packaged: 2017-11-25 20:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/642500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve gets love notes, and he decides to spread the love around.</p><p>(This is totally ignoring the end of Avengers where they split up. It's fluff, why waste words on logical setup?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notable

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

"Hey, Cap, lend a hand." 

Steve looked up from his StarkPad where he was playing Movie Roulette with Jarvis offering random selections. He'd about decided to watch _Life of Pi_ mainly because it was totally unlike his real life. Well, so far. He'd never been in a lifeboat with a tiger, but then, it was only Tuesday. Anything could happen in Stark Tower. Including the owner of the Tower walking in, carrying in his arms a brown tweed suitcase with leather trim and striped fabric bands. "Well, I'll be..." He stood up to take the case from Tony and lay it on the table. It was scuffed and the handle was broken, but still had a wired-on pasteboard label reading 'S.Rogers', with his old address in Brooklyn in case it was ever lost. "Where did you find it?"

"Well, after the drama with Coulson's return from the dead, Fury felt bad about lying to us, and so out of the goodness of his heart, he remembered he'd been holding this for you."

Everyone who'd been sitting on the U-shaped arrangement of couches, including Coulson, turned to look at Tony. Tony threw up his hands. "Ok, the truth is, I got Jarvis to nose around and he found this and I may have kinda annoyed Fury into handing it over. Don't ask how, it's not polite to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I don't even know what's in it, after all these years."

"Bricks, from the weight of it," Tony said as he flung himself in the general direction of the couch, landing between Thor and Bruce. "Open it, and let's see."

"Steve might like to do that in private," Bruce said.

"Really? Why?" Tony looked honestly baffled. "We've all seen each other naked on more than one occasion, what could be in a seventy year old suitcase that's more shocking than that?"

"It's not a question of shocking, Tony," Pepper said. "Some things are just personal."

"Oh." Tony looked at Steve and frowned. "Sentiment, yeah, that's a thing."

"You didn't open it?"

"Hey! It's not mine! I just thought you should have your stuff. You don't have to show it to us." Tony put on a virtuous look. It didn't sit well on him.

Steve smiled. "Curiosity kills the Stark. I'll open it. It's probably just clothes and books." Steve opened the case. He hadn't bothered to lock it- really at the time he hadn't owned anything worth more than the suitcase, so why risk a thief damaging it? "See, clothes and books." He took out a pre-serum, scrawny Steve, shirt and held it up in front of himself for a laugh, but no one laughed, not even Clint or Stark.

He put the shirt down on the table and then picked up a pair of brogans, the leather cracked across and the sole stuffed with newspaper to cover a hole. "Yeah, really, this is all junk." He remembered his landlady giving him the shoes after she got the telegram that her Joe wouldn't be coming home. He put the shoes gently on the table. "And here's my copy of 'Thank You Jeeves'... I always liked Wodehouse. Oh, hey, 'Cold Comfort Farm', I should re-read that." He opened the book carefully. The pages were brittle. "They always gave me a laugh."

"So, you like humorous books?" Natasha asked.

"Well, those days, a laugh was worth a lot. I liked mysteries, too." He picked up another handful of worn paperbacks. "Murder on the Orient Express, The Thin Man... The Maltese Falcon." Steve pushed aside other books, the ones no one was likely to remember. He'd read them later and try to decide whether they deserved to be forgot. At the bottom of the pile was one of his old sketchbooks... the drawings he kept because he'd learned from them, even if it was only what not to do. He learned a lot from his mistakes. He picked up the sketchbook and flipped it open. "Yeah, this is pretty bad." There were scraps of paper stuck in, scribbles and doodles and failures of perspective and shading. Sometimes it was good to look back and be glad you weren't what you had been.

He picked up a few more articles of clothing, but really, it was mostly books, as he'd said. Tin of tooth powder, rusty pocketknife, a few even more rusty pen nibs wrapped up in waxed paper, assorted pencils, a worn out wallet, a lucky Indian head penny. "That's it," he said and started putting things back in the case.

"You dropped this," Clint said. He unfolded the paper. "Looks like part of a letter. Hope the rest is in there."

"Let me see... oh." Steve found himself smiling. "No, this is the whole thing. 'Love, Always'. My mother used to write these little notes and hide them where I'd find them later. She never signed them because..." He had to stop to clear his throat, which had become a little dry. "she said anyone could have written it, because, you know how mothers are... she thought I was so lovable the whole world had to see it." He folded the paper back up carefully and put it between the pages of the sketch pad in the suitcase. "Um, well, I'll just put this in my room and come back for the movie."

***

The next morning Steve came down to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, but when he picked up 'his' mug (for a wonder Stark had been restrained and just got him a plain white mug with 'Steve' on it... at least he'd thought Tony had been restrained until he discovered that the mug changed color when it got hot, revealing his shield)... well, when he picked up his mug, a piece of paper was stuck to it. He peeled off the paper. _Love, Always_ , written in bright red block letters. He looked around. Natasha and Bruce were sharing an orange. Clint was making himself a sandwich. Well, as jokes went, this wasn't bad. He put the note in his pocket.

A note with pink curly lettering with the 'o' in the shape of a heart was between a set of free weights. Steve took out the red lettered one and tried to decide if it was the same handwriting. He couldn't tell. He... kinda liked it. Not just because it reminded him of his mother. Of course, it was only a joke, and whoever was doing it would get tired of it.

***

A week later he was still getting 'Love, Always' notes. Not only did the paper and the ink vary, but every one of the Avengers had been away from the Tower during at least one mysterious note appearance, which made this a conspiracy of at least two. Probably all of them, and Pepper and Coulson too, were in on it.

Well, he knew how to fight back.

***

The look on Tony's face when Dummy proudly waved his, 'Love, Always' note was priceless, as was the suspicious look he gave Steve. Steve glanced at the note. "Oh, hey, someone must think you're lovable. Looks like Clint's handwriting, don't you think?"

Steve was having a lot more fun with this than he thought he should, but he justified it as good practice at subterfuge. After all, the Avengers might not always be faced with 'divas' who wanted to go toe-to-toe with them. Not that sneaking an affectionate note into Natasha's Widow's Bite when she left it plugged in to recharge was likely to be called for in battle.

Then he saw Bruce get one he knew he hadn't written, mainly because he didn't have a pencil that wrote in a rainbow of colors at once. This was maybe getting out of hand... or was it? Bruce had put the note in his pants pocket and boarded the quinjet, still smiling.

Of course, he wasn't smiling fifteen minutes later when the villain of the week blasted the Hulk's back with a purple ray. Whatever it was, the Hulk reacted like a cat walking across a cactus. An electrified cactus. Which was on fire. It was.... really not good. They took down the villain and his minions, but the Hulk was still flailing about smashing aimlessly and roaring.

And worst of all, he was crying. Steve had known for some time that the Hulk was more human than he appeared, but he'd never seen him cry. At least he wasn't running away. In fact... the Hulk sat down in the rubble and wrapped his arms around himself. He wasn't roaring any longer, but saying something... between sobs. It was difficult to make out.

Now that he wasn't moving all the Avengers came close to him. Tony took off his helmet and patted the Hulk on the knee. Steve was a little... not jealous, but sorry that he couldn't be the one to do that, but the Hulk always did respond best to Tony. Tony said, "What's wrong, big guy? Where does it hurt?"

"HERE!" the Hulk pounded his chest above his heart. "MONSTER. ALWAYS MONSTER. HATE ME."

"Oh, no, big green, no one hates you," Tony said. "We like you. A lot." 

The Hulk looked as doubtful as a toddler being told that medicine tastes good, but he didn't act hostile. He touched Tony's chest with one huge finger. "LIKE HULK?"

And then Steve remembered. "Tony! In his pocket. Bruce got a note."

"A note...Oh," Tony said. "One of those. Um... you know, those pants are awfully tight. I can't get Iron Man's fingers in there."

"I can," Natasha said. She came up to the Hulk slowly. "It's all right, лягушонок, look." Tony kept patting the Hulk's arm to distract him while she reached into the Hulk's pocket, and pulled out the note. "See?"

The Hulk took the note and peered at it for a long moment, his lips moving while he read. Then he smiled. "LOVE HULK ALWAYS? HULK NOT MONSTER?"

Steve came to join the rest of the Avengers gathered around the Hulk. "You're our friend, not a monster. Of course we love you."

"HULK LOVE!" The Hulk picked up Tony and hugged him. Tony may have squeaked a bit in surprise. "HULK LOVE!" He held out his other arm. Natasha shrugged and climbed into the Hulk's embrace, a second before Steve and Clint and Thor got there. It was a bit warm, but nice.

The Hulk smiled. And you know, it wasn't a face only a mother could love.

**Author's Note:**

> лягушонок means 'frogling' in English. :^)


End file.
